Pubdate: Sat, 19 Oct 2013 Source: Durango Herald, The (CO) Copyright: 2013 The Durango Herald Contact: http://durangoherald.com/write_the_editor/ Website: http://durangoherald.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/866 Author: Chuck Slothower COUNTY CONDUCTS POT SURVEY Public Forum to Be Held Wednesday at Courthouse La Plata County officials are encouraging residents to complete a survey to help shape marijuana regulations now under discussion. The survey comes as the Board of County Commissioners is considering how to regulate recreational marijuana grow facilities and retail shops. The short survey can be completed online from the county's website, or in person at the information desk at the courthouse, 1060 East Second Ave. Surveys can be filled out online only once, so no stuffing the ballot box. Most of the survey questions deal with how, when and where marijuana operations should be located. "They're the primary things over which local jurisdictions have some control," said County Attorney Sheryl Rogers. The county also will host a public forum on marijuana regulation at 6 p.m. Wednesday at the courthouse. There will be five stations, focusing respectively on licensing, law enforcement, policy, building and code issues, and land use and water issues. The county has little to go on as it regulates recreational marijuana. County officials are looking to their own experience regulating medical marijuana and liquor, and approaches taken by other Colorado counties. "What we're trying to do is really do our due diligence so we've hopefully turned over every rock and thought of every possible consequence," Commissioner Bobby Lieb said. "There are no precedents for it." County staff members and commissioners are weighing whether to adopt a buffer around schools, day care centers and other specific places. State medical marijuana rules require a 1,000-foot buffer, but the law providing for recreational sales includes no similar provision. The towns of Bayfield and Ignacio have asked for three-mile buffers around their towns where marijuana operations would be prohibited, Rogers said. Rogers and other county officials plan to meet privately with their counterparts in Durango, Bayfield and Ignacio municipal governments, along with the Southern Ute Indian Tribe, to discuss how county regulations will work with the other jurisdictions. The county also must grapple with whether to allow marijuana operations in mixed-use buildings, and in residential areas. One of the county's medical marijuana growers is located in the Shenandoah subdivision southwest of Durango. "Philosophically, there are sometimes concerns about growing a lot of marijuana in residential areas," Rogers said. "We'd like public input on that." The county's medical marijuana growers have indicated an interest in expanding to also cultivate recreational marijuana. Commissioners are dealing first with conversions of medical growers who want to cultivate recreational marijuana. County staff members hope to draft licensing and land-use regulations by late April or early May 2014 for public input, followed by adoption by county commissioners in July. [sidebar] Take the survey retail marijuana businesses Survey: http://svy.mk/17SON4P. Paper copies can be picked up and dropped off, or mailed to: Information Desk, La Plata County Courthouse, 1060 East Second Ave., Durango, CO 81301. - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom